ful, anxious and somewhat crafty
expression of face, and in spite of his loftiness of manner, which was
evidently the result both of an ambitious spirit and of long
continuance in high stations, he seemed not incapable of cringing to a
greater than himself. A few steps behind came an officer in a scarlet
and embroidered uniform cut in a fashion old enough to have been worn
by the duke of Marlborough. His nose had a rubicund tinge, which,
together with the twinkle of his eye, might have marked him as a lover
of the wine-cup and good-fellowship; notwithstanding which tokens, he
appeared ill at ease, and often glanced around him as if apprehensive
of some secret mischief. Next came a portly gentleman wearing a coat
of shaggy cloth lined with silken velvet; he had sense, shrewdness and
humor in his face and a folio volume under his arm, but his aspect was
that of a man vexed and tormented beyond all patience and harassed
almost to death. He went hastily down, and was followed by a dignified
person dressed in a purple velvet suit with very rich embroidery; his
demeanor would have possessed much stateliness, only that a grievous
fit of the gout compelled him to hobble from stair to stair with
contortions of face and body. When Dr. Byles beheld this figure on the
staircase, he shivered as with an ague, but continued to watch him
steadfastly until the gouty gentleman had reached the threshold, made
a gesture of anguish and despair and vanished into the outer gloom,
whither the funeral music summoned him.

"Governor Belcher--my old patron--in his very shape and dress!" gasped
Dr. Byles. "This is an awful mockery."

"A tedious foolery, rather," said Sir William Howe, with an air of
indifference. "But who were the three that preceded him?"

"Governor Dudley, a cunning politician; yet his craft once brought him
to a prison," replied Colonel Joliffe. "Governor Shute, formerly a
colonel under Marlborough, and whom the people frightened out of the
province, and learned Governor Burnett, whom the legislature tormented
into a mortal fever."

"Methinks they were miserable men--these royal governors of
Massachusetts," observed Miss Joliffe. "Heavens! how dim the light
grows!"

It was certainly a fact that the large lamp which illuminated the
staircase now burned dim and duskily; so that several figures which
passed hastily down the stairs and went forth from the porch appeared
rather like shadows than persons of fleshly substance.